The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party - Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Marian Calabro

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The Forlorn Hope party estimated it was thirty miles to California, so they packed six days of food. Their own story is also a miserable one. Sweeping snowstorms knocked them off course and slowed them, and they suffered from snow blindness from the snow reflections. Six days in, and nowhere near California, the group's leader, Charles Stanton, died.

Desperate for food, the solution of cannibalism was first broached by Patrick Dolan. They debated whether they should kill someone - either by drawing straws or in a duel - but in the end, they decided they should wait for someone to die. After a campfire literally melted the snow beneath it, "digging" a hole that sunk the people huddled around the fire deep into the snow drift, Patrick Dolan went mad and died. Three others died soon after of starvation and cold.